Hyeong-Seok Ko

Stable but responsive cloth

We present a semi-implicit cloth simulation technique that is very stable yet also responsive. The stability of the technique allows the use of a large fixed time step when simulating all types of fabrics and character motions. The animations generated using this technique are strikingly realistic. Wrinkles form and disappear in a quite natural way, which is the feature that most distinguishes textile fabrics from other sheet materials. Significant improvements in both the stability and realism were made possible by overcoming the post-buckling instability as well as the numerical instability. The instability caused by buckling arises from a structural instability and therefore cannot be avoided by simply employing a semi-implicit method. Addition of a damping force may help to avoid instabilities; however, it can significantly degrade the realism of the cloth motion. The method presented here uses a particle-based physical model to handle the instability in the post-buckling response without introducing any fictitious damping.We present a semi-implicit cloth simulation technique that is very stable yet also responsive. The stability of the technique allows the use of a large fixed time step when simulating all types of fabrics and character motions. The animations generated using this technique are strikingly realistic. Wrinkles form and disappear in a quite natural way, which is the feature that most distinguishes textile fabrics from other sheet materials. Significant improvements in both the stability and realism were made possible by overcoming the post-buckling instability as well as the numerical instability. The instability caused by buckling arises from a structural instability and therefore cannot be avoided by simply employing a semi-implicit method. Addition of a damping force may help to avoid instabilities; however, it can significantly degrade the realism of the cloth motion. The method presented here uses a particle-based physical model to handle the instability in the post-buckling response without introducing any fictitious damping.

A physically-based motion retargeting filter

This article presents a novel constraint-based motion editing technique. On the basis of animator-specified kinematic and dynamic constraints, the method converts a given captured or animated motion to a physically plausible motion. In contrast to previous methods using spacetime optimization, we cast the motion editing problem as a constrained state estimation problem, based on the per-frame Kalman filter framework. The method works as a filter that sequentially scans the input motion to produce a stream of output motion frames at a stable interactive rate. Animators can tune several filter parameters to adjust to different motions, turn the constraints on or off based on their contributions to the final result, or provide a rough sketch (kinematic hint) as an effective way of producing the desired motion. Experiments on various systems show that the technique processes the motions of a human with 54 degrees of freedom, at about 150 fps when only kinematic constraints are applied, and at about 10 fps when both kinematic and dynamic constraints are applied. Experiments on various types of motion show that the proposed method produces remarkably realistic animations.

Animating human locomotion with inverse dynamics

Because the major force components (the internal muscular forces and torques) are not known a priori over time, you cannot use forward dynamics to predict how the human body will walk. The alternative to the apparently intractable problem of specifying the joint torque patterns in advance is to use inverse dynamics to analyze the torques and forces required for the given motion. Such an analysis can show, for example, that the motion induces excessive torque, that the system is out of balance at a certain point, or that the step length is too great. We present a method of using an inverse dynamics computation to dynamically balance the resulting walking motion and to maintain the joint torques within a moderate range imposed by human strength limits. This method corrects or predicts a motion as indicated by the inverse dynamics analysis. Dynamic correctness is a sufficient condition for realistic motion of nonliving objects. In animating a self-actuated system, however, visual realism is another important, separate criterion for determining the success of a technique. Dynamic correctness is not a sufficient condition for this visual realism. An animation of dynamically balanced walking that is also comfortable in the sense of avoiding strength violations can still look quite different from normal human walking. A visually realistic and dynamically sound animation of human locomotion is obtained using an effective combination of kinematic and dynamic techniques.

Modal warping: real-time simulation of large rotational deformation and manipulation

This work proposes a real-time simulation technique for large deformations. Greens nonlinear strain tensor accurately models large deformations; however, time stepping of the resulting nonlinear system can be computationally expensive. Modal analysis based on a linear strain tensor has been shown to be suitable for real-time simulation, but is accurate only for moderately small deformations. In the present work, we identify the rotational component of an infinitesimal deformation and extend traditional linear modal analysis to track that component. We then develop a procedure to integrate the small rotations occurring at the nodal points. An interesting feature of our formulation is that it can implement both position and orientation constraints in a straightforward manner. These constraints can be used to interactively manipulate the shape of a deformable solid by dragging/twisting a set of nodes. Experiments show that the proposed technique runs in real-time, even for a complex model, and that it can simulate large bending and/or twisting deformations with acceptable realism.

Research problems in clothing simulation

Clothing simulation and animation are of great importance in computer animation. If cloth simulations could be improved to the point that they could generate realistic cloth motion in real-time, they would find uses in many aspects of daily life such as in fashion design and manufacturing. The area of cloth simulation and animation is full of technical challenges: creating more realistic results, achieving faster run-times, and developing methods capable of constructing and simulating more complex garments. This paper provides an overview of the key procedures involved in the creation of clothed characters, describes the current state-of-the-art techniques, and proposes the research problems that most require further study. Three technical aspects of cloth simulation are considered in this paper: garment construction, physically based simulation, and collision resolution.

Motion Balance Filtering

This paper presents a new technique called motion balance filtering, which corrects an unbalanced motion to a balanced one while preserving the original motion characteristics as much as possible. Differently from previous approaches that deal only with the balance of static posture, we solve the problem of balancing a dynamic motion. We achieve dynamic balance by analyzing and controlling the trajectory of the zero moment point (ZMP). Our algorithm consists of three steps. First, it analyzes the ZMP trajectory to find out the duration in which dynamic balance is violated. Dynamic imbalance is identified by the ZMP trajectory segments lying out of the supporting area. Next, the algorithm modifies the ZMP trajectory by projecting it into the supporting area. Finally, it generates the balanced motion that satisfies the new ZMP constraint. This process is formulated as a constrained optimization problem so that the new motion resembles the original motion as much as possible. Experiments prove that our motion balance filtering algorithm is a useful method to add physical realism to a kinematically edited motion.

Performance-driven muscle-based facial animation

We describe a system to synthesize facial expressions by editing captured performances. For this purpose, we use the actuation of expression muscles to control facial expressions. We note that there have been numerous algorithms already developed for editing gross body motion. While the joint angle has direct effect on the configuration of the gross body, the muscle actuation has to go through a complicated mechanism to produce facial expressions. Therefore, we devote a significant part of this paper to establish the relationship between muscle actuation and facial surface deformation. We model the skin surface using finite element method to simulate the deformation caused by expression muscles. Then, we implement the inverse relationship, muscle actuation parameter estimation, to find the muscle actuation values from the trajectories of the markers on the performer’s face. Once the forward and inverse relationships are established, retargeting or editing a performance becomes an easy job. We apply the original performance data to different facial models with equivalent muscle structures, to produce similar expressions. We also produce novel expressions by deforming the original data curves of muscle actuation to satisfy the key-frame constraints imposed by animators.

Online motion retargetting

This paper presents a method to retarget the motion of a character to another in real time. The technique is based on inverse rate control, which computes the changes in joint angles corresponding to the changes in end-effector position. While tracking the multiple end-effector trajectories of the original subject or character, our online motion retargetting also minimizes the joint angle differences by exploiting the kinematic redundancies of the animated model. This method can apply a captured motion to another anthropometry so that it can perform slightly different motion, while preserving the original motion characteristics. Because the above is done online, a real-time performance can be mapped to other characters. Moreover, if the method is used interactively during motion capture session, the feedback of retargetted motion on the screen provides more chances to get satisfactory results. As a by-product, our algorithm can be used to reduce measurement errors in restoring captured motion. The data enhancement improves the accuracy in both joint angles and end-effector positions. Experimental results show that our retargetting algorithm preserves high-frequency details of the original motion quite accurately. Copyright

On-line motion retargetting

This paper presents a method to retarget the motion of a character to another in real-time. The technique is based on inverse rate control, which compares the changes in joint angles corresponding to the changes in end-effector position. While tracking the multiple end-effector trajectories of the original subject or character, our on-line motion retargetting also minimizes the joint angle differences by exploiting the kinematic redundancies of the animated model. This method can generalize a captured motion for another anthropometry to perform slightly different motion, while preserving the original motion characteristics. Because the above is done in on-line, a real-time performance can be mapped to other characters. Moreover, if the method is used interactively during motion capture session, the feedback of retargetted motion on the screen provides more chances to get satisfactory results. As a by-product, our algorithm can be used to reduce measurement errors in restoring captured motion. The data enhancement improves the accuracy in both joint angles and end-effector positions. Experiments prove that our retargetting algorithm preserves the high frequency details of the original motion quite accurately.

Simulating complex hair with robust collision handling

We present a new framework for simulating dynamic movements of complex hairstyles. The proposed framework, which treats hair as a collection of wisps, includes new approaches to simulating dynamic wisp movements and handling wisp-body collisions and wisp-wisp interactions. For the simulation of wisps, we introduce a new hair dynamics model, a hybrid of the rigid multi-body, serial chain and mass-spring models, to formulate the simulation system using an implicit integration method. Consequently, the simulator can impose collision/contact constraints systematically, allowing it to handle wisp-body collisions efficiently without the need for backtracking or sub-timestepping. In addition, the simulator handles wisp-wisp collisions based on impulses while taking into account viscous damping and cohesive forces. Experimental results show that the proposed technique can stably simulate hair with intricate geometries while robustly handling wisp-body collisions and wisp-wisp interactions.